“It seemed beyond my understanding that a mother and a daughter could not love one another. Parents love their kids, kids love their parents—that seemed like a universal truth.” — Kimberly Rae Miller Copy Share Image
“ate matzo on Easter and ham on Hanukah, and I was relatively sure that Christmas was somehow intertwined with my birthday. It all made… — Kimberly Rae Miller Copy Share Image
“hoarders tend to be perfectionists, that each item they collect is one crucial part of an ideal world they are ever creating for themselves.” — Kimberly Rae Miller Copy Share Image
“EVERY NIGHT BEFORE I went to sleep, I would conjure the image of the actor George Burns in my head and ask him for the things I wanted most in life: new dolls, a best friend, and for my house to burn down. Religion was not a solidly formed concept for me, but I had seen a movie about God… — Kimberly Rae Miller Copy Share
“My friends lived in clean houses; I lived in a dirty one. I’d always known we were different, but until now I didn’t know… — Kimberly Rae Miller Copy Share Image
“One day you won’t be able to pretend everything was okay, and you’re going to hate us.” — Kimberly Rae Miller Copy Share Image
“He might trail off in the direction of a shiny new thought and end up like the man in Penn Station, content to wander… — Kimberly Rae Miller Copy Share Image
“father without my mother. He needed her—probably more than I did. I was afraid that without her to anchor him to a normal life… — Kimberly Rae Miller Copy Share Image
“My father is a hoarder. I can say that now, and people’s eyes widen in understanding. Maybe they know someone who is a hoarder,… — Kimberly Rae Miller Copy Share Image
“In my reading I found that many hoarders have similar stories to my dad. Maybe they weren’t the children of abusive alcoholics, but they… — Kimberly Rae Miller Copy Share Image
“What shames us, what we most fear to tell, does not set us apart from others; it binds us together if only we can… — Kimberly Rae Miller Copy Share Image
